Cult Awareness Network News - March 12, 1992
Behar of TIME honored with Conscience-in-Media Award for Scientology
story
The American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) has awarded its
prestigious Conscience-in-Media Award to Richard Behar, associate
editor of TIME Magazine, for his May 6, 1991 cover story,
"Scientology: The Cult of Greed."
The ASJA award honors those who have "demonstrated singular commitment
to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost or
sacrifice."
Behar, before he undertook his Scientology piece, was aware that he
would likely be the target of Scientology's "fair game" policy of
ruthlessly attacking critics of the organization.
The November/December issue of euill Magazine detailed the tactics
Behar and other journalists have been subjected to in writing about
Scientology.
The award was begun in 1975, but because its criteria are not easy to
meet, it is not given often, only in those years when someone is
deemed worthy. According to ASJA, the writer must knowingly have taken
a risk that goes beyond the normal call of duty.
The award will be presented May 8 in New York. Past award recipients
include I.F. Stone, Don Bolles, Donald Woods, Jacobo Timmerman, Erwin
Knell and Jonathan Kozol.
For the first time in the ASJA's his tory, a second
Conscience-in-Media Award will be presented as well to Paulette
Cooper, author of the book, The Scandal ofScientology.
Cooper, a long-time ASJA member, published her book in the early
seventies, and because this and other writings of hers were critical
of Scientology, she became to target of a Scientology fair game
operation the cult called "PC Freakout."
Cooper was indicted in 1973 for sending bomb threats through the mail.
In 1977, after an FBI raid on Scientology offices, documents seized in
the raid revealed that Cooper had been framed by Scientology.
As the Conscience-in-Media Award had not been conceived by ASJA when
Cooper wrote her book on Scientology, the association thought that
recognizing Cooper at the same time that the award is given to Behar
underscores the courage of both writers and their commitment to
writing excellence in the face of personal risk.
To Richard Behar, receiving the Conscience-in-Media award is
especially meaningful, not just for the personal recognition it
brings, but "because it legitimizes and sheds sunlight on all of the
cult's victims, many of whom are still terrified to speak up."